Wait continues for iPhone 3G at Apple store

People were still willing to wait in line for hours Friday afternoon outside the downtown San Francisco Apple store, as employees assured them sufficient supply of the iPhone 3G lay inside.

The line for the iPhone 3G at 4 p.m. in San Francisco was almost as long as it was earlier in the day: stretched down Stockton Street and around the corner onto O'Farrell.

Orange-shirted Apple store employees were moving up and down the line, answering questions and promising customers that there would still be an iPhone 3G for them once they got to the head of the line.

An Apple employee assures customers who had spent hours in line that they would get an iPhone 3G.

(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET News)

An Apple public relations representative confirmed that the company's servers were back online and activating iPhones inside the store, but declined to comment on the widespread problems that affected the iPhone 3G launch around the world. Some customers waited for hours inside the Apple store for employees to activate their new phones after Apple's iTunes servers crashed under the weight of the worldwide launch.

One group of customers said they had been told by Apple employees that the wait in line from the corner of Stockton and O'Farrell, roughly a block away from the entrance to the Apple store, was averaging at least two hours. Last year the line for the original iPhone had totally disappeared an hour after the doors opened.